Honestly, if you mention the cast of housewives of dc to a casual reality TV fan today, you’ll probably get a blank stare. It’s the "lost" city. While Atlanta, Beverly Hills, and New York became multi-decade institutions, the D.C. iteration vanished after just eleven episodes in 2010. It wasn't because of low ratings, though. It was because one couple literally crashed a White House state dinner and triggered a federal investigation. Talk about a casting director's nightmare.
The show was supposed to be about the intersection of power, politics, and social climbing in the nation’s capital. Instead, it became a cautionary tale about how reality TV can go off the rails when the cameras catch something truly illegal. The ensemble was a weird, volatile mix of old-money socialites, philanthropic power players, and two people who were essentially professional grifters.
The Cast of Housewives of DC: Meet the Players
Let's talk about Mary Amons. She was the closest thing the show had to "legacy" D.C. royalty. Her grandfather was Arthur Godfrey, a massive radio and TV personality back in the day. Mary was the quintessential socialite—blonde, polished, and deeply involved in the charity circuit like Labels for Love. She represented the "old guard" that the show desperately needed to ground the more chaotic elements. Mary always seemed a bit mortified by the behavior of her castmates, which, looking back, was a pretty reasonable reaction.
Then you had Lynda Erkiletian. She owned one of the top modeling agencies in the city. Lynda was sharp, blunt, and had zero patience for nonsense. She brought a certain "boss" energy that felt authentic to the D.C. professional landscape. She was dating a younger man named Ebong Eka at the time, which provided a bit of a subplot, but her main contribution was acting as the voice of reason when things got weird.
Stacie Scott Turner was another heavy hitter. A Harvard MBA, successful real estate agent, and philanthropist. Her storyline was actually quite moving; she spent much of the season searching for her biological father. She brought a level of intelligence and genuine professional success that balanced out the fluff. Stacie was the bridge between the social scene and the actual working world of the District.
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The Most Controversial Housewife: Michaele Salahi
We can't talk about the cast of housewives of dc without talking about Michaele and Tareq Salahi. They were the sun the show revolved around, for better or worse. Mostly worse.
Michaele was a former cheerleader (or so she claimed) who lived a life that felt like a house of cards. She and Tareq were involved in a bitter legal feud over the family's Oasis Winery. But the moment that killed the show happened on November 24, 2009. The Salahis, dressed in formal wear (Michaele in a stunning red lehenga), managed to get past Secret Service checkpoints and into a state dinner for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. They weren't on the guest list.
They took photos with Vice President Joe Biden. They posted them on Facebook. The fallout was immediate. Congressional hearings followed. Subpoenas were issued. Bravo was suddenly in the middle of a national security scandal. You just can't come back from that. The Secret Service was humiliated, and the show became a liability.
Cat Ommanney rounded out the group. An interior designer and a Brit, Cat was the firecracker. She was outspoken, frequently clashed with the others, and famously claimed she had shared a "passionate" moment with Prince Harry years prior. She moved back to the UK shortly after the show aired, and her marriage to a White House photographer ended not long after.
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Why the D.C. Cast Didn't Get a Second Season
Andy Cohen has been pretty open about this in his books and interviews. He wanted a second season. The ratings were actually decent. But the Salahi scandal made it impossible to film in D.C. The "elite" of the city—the people with actual power who the show needed to film with—wanted nothing to do with a production that had compromised the White House.
If you're a high-ranking official or a diplomat, you aren't going to show up at a party where the cast of housewives of dc is filming if there’s a risk of being associated with a federal security breach. The show lost its access. Without access, a D.C. show is just a show about people in the suburbs.
There’s also the matter of the cast chemistry. Aside from the Salahi drama, the women didn't really like each other, but not in the "fun to watch" way. It felt heavy. Mary and Lynda were genuinely disgusted by Michaele's antics even before the state dinner incident. By the time the reunion rolled around—which felt more like a legal deposition than a TV special—the bridge was burned.
Where Are They Now?
It's been over a decade. The lives of the cast of housewives of dc have taken some wild turns.
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- Michaele Salahi: After the show, she famously "disappeared," only for it to be revealed she had left Tareq for Journey guitarist Neal Schon. They got married in a live broadcast event in 2013 and seem happy, which is a plot twist no one saw coming in 2010.
- Mary Amons: She eventually moved on from her marriage and relocated to Charlottesville. She’s still involved in interior design and remains one of the most respected former cast members.
- Lynda Erkiletian: She still runs her agency and remains a fixture in the D.C. social and business scene, though she stays far away from reality TV cameras.
- Stacie Scott Turner: She has mostly stayed out of the spotlight, focusing on her career and her family. She remains a respected figure in the D.C. community.
- Cat Ommanney: She’s living in the UK, raising her daughters, and recently made headlines again for discussing her past connection to Prince Harry in the wake of his memoir, Spare.
The Legacy of the D.C. Housewives
D.C. was eventually "replaced" by The Real Housewives of Potomac in 2016. Potomac works because it focuses on the "old money" black aristocracy of the D.C. suburbs, avoiding the federal politics that made the original show so radioactive. It’s a softer, more sustainable version of what Bravo tried to do in 2010.
The original cast of housewives of dc remains a fascinating "what if" in television history. It was the first time the franchise flew too close to the sun. It proved that in Washington, the quest for fame can actually be more dangerous than the quest for power.
If you're looking to dive deeper into this specific era of reality TV history, there are a few things you should actually do to see the full picture.
First, track down the footage of the 2009 Congressional hearing regarding the state dinner security breach. Seeing Tareq and Michaele Salahi plead the Fifth Amendment is a surreal crossover between C-SPAN and Bravo. Second, read Andy Cohen’s The Andy Cohen Diaries for the behind-the-scenes perspective on why the show was officially axed; he provides the kind of logistical detail about the production's "blacklisting" in the city that you won't find in a press release. Finally, if you can find the reunion episode on a streaming service, watch it closely—it’s the only time in the entire Real Housewives history where the cast looks genuinely scared of the legal repercussions of their own show.